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Holy Opulence

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While I’m admittedly not the most active member of the Church (much to the dismay of my parental units), I could pass off as a passive Christian—at best. I go to church every Sunday (a force of habit), walk in the sweltering heat of the summer sun for the Biyernes Santo procession, and at least try (but monumentally fail) to fast during the rest of the annual Holy Week. I’ve even made a pilgrimage to the Vatican and attended the Wednesday mass presided by the pope, but that was mainly to make my folks happy. I can’t say I didn’t enjoy myself in the holy city as I was guilty of gawking at a number of things: the great art and architecture of the great St. Peter’s Basilica, the cool but totally creepy cadavers of the past popes, the ornate and bejeweled relics of the Vatican museum, but most of all, the ridiculously handsome members of the Vatican gendarmerie. And let’s be honest, who can say no to jetting off to Rome?

To put it in the words of author Dan Brown’s fictional character, professor Robert Langdon, “faith is a gift that I have yet to receive.” The recently concluded visit of the well-loved Pope Francis to our motherland may not have renewed my faith, it did however, inspire me to curate for you the most gorgeous, relic-inspired, locally-designed jewelry I could lay my hands on. These gem-encrusted, gilded pieces don’t exactly echo the ‘less is more’ philosophy of the current Vicar of Christ, but hey, for popes back in the middle ages, this was most certainly the way to go!